Excellent poem. You grab my attention from that remarkable opening. The passion rises like welts, the heartbreaking and horrific scenes memorable. Terrible poem all the way through... brings back memories... the authenticity is from my POV unquestionable...

Powerful language to that ending that extends the responsibility into the world around these brothers ...

I am blessed to not have experienced a violent childhood; as a result I find this story almost surreal. I think you have done a great job depicting the horrors of such a childhood, it helps me understand what others have endured, so good job; none-the-less, it is not the kind of poem I like to read, then I don’t like to watch movies with torture either.

Thanks all. This was never going to be a great or even good poem. It's not barbarism solely for shock value though. I smile a little at "torture".

It was literally *nothing* to see kids in the neighborhood riding bikes with multiple welts on their legs, in various hues, to hear screams from the house mext door. Of course today, they would go to jail. Parents in that era grew up in the Great Depression, went through WWII. I've often wondered if my generation, who rebelled and protested in the 60's and 70's were anti authoritarian because of this